Siting & Remediation

Building Credibility and Community Support

Whether a company seeks to site a new facility or to clean up an old one, success requires careful, credible communications. The public support necessary to complete any greenfield or brownfield project depends on caring, open, dedicated and expert interaction. That interaction must be consistent across different audiences.

Collaborating with lawyers, business leaders and health and safety experts, we guide public and private sector clients through the complicated communications requirements associated with the National Environmental Policy Act, Superfund projects and various state environmental agency reviews. The principles that guide our work link operations and outreach in order produce long-lasting, positive results.

Look for ways to engage – and build confidence.

We rely on leading forms of social science and market research to gauge stakeholder priorities. Key PCG staff facilitate and moderate public meetings, focus groups and town halls to ensure involvement from concerned parties. Our associate network includes polling organizations with sector, language and country expertise.

Use language real people understand.

PCG’s experience with lawyers, engineers and technical professionals enables shared goals to be achieved. We help translate technical scientific language and data into language that can be easily understood by decision makers. For community events, PCG provides start to finish support, from identifying expert witnesses, creating media materials and writing final reports.

Follow proven practices in communicating about risk.

Risk management has particular meaning to business strategists, but in the communications sphere, we emphasize risk communication. Risk communication spans interdisciplinary work by psychologists, sociologists, neurologists, cognitive scientists and behavioral economists. The result is more than four decades worth of experimental and analytical data. We know what works when concern is high and trust is low.

Make use of third-party experts.

Reputation depends on what other people say about you. PCG maintains a vast array of relationships with specialists, experts and industry observers who are often willing to stand up for what they believe. Our experience maintaining this network sets the standard for how we help clients that seek to build their own roster of allies who can champion their causes.

Partner for success.

We work across the country and around the world on these kinds of projects. To understand local cultural context, we team with our clients and local partners to gain the necessary insights and create measures to monitor success in connecting with communities on the issues that matter most.